Alternating piston type internal combustion engine



June 24, 1958 K. E. STRINGER" 2,8 0, 58

ALTERNATING PISTON TYPE INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE Filed Feb. 8, 1955 INVENTOR.

Ksw/vE TH E 57Q/N65Q ATTOQA/EVE United States Patent ALTERNATING PISTON TYPE INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE Kenneth E. Stringer, Irvington, N. J.

Application February 8, 1955, Serial No. 486,861

2 Claims. (Cl. 123-11) This invention relates to a novel engine, more particularly an internal combustion engine of the piston and cylinder. type in which the advantages of a multi-cylinder engine are achieved in a uni-cylinder construction.

As in the case of all power apparatus, it is desired to.

have maximum power output for the volume of space occupied by the apparatus. Thus, in all contemporary engine installation whether in automobiles, airplanes, ships or the like vehicles employing internal combustion engines as a power source, there is a constant striving in the part of the designer to improve the efficiencies of the existing power plant, thus minimizing the space requirements per unit horsepower. From the simple in-line engine, technological development has progressed through the V8 to the radial engine in its constant striving to attain a minimum space requirement per horsepower output. Additional design problems which must be overcome are those centering about'elimination of vibration conventionally resulting from the periodicity of the cycle of "operation and the fact the power stroke transmitted to the crankshaft is transmitted to a plurality of axially spaced points along the crankshaft.

It is with the above problems in mind that the present construction has been evolved, a construction providing an internal combustion engine in which a single cylinder provides all the power benefits previously obtained from the use of multicylinder arrangements, and serves further to so distribute the power forces transmitted to the crankshaft so as to substantially eliminate vibrations, by applying these forces in a substantially unitary plane passing through said crankshaft.

It is accordingly a primary object of this invention to provide a novel internal combustion engine.

A further object of this invention is to provide an internal combustion engine with maximum power output per unit of space occupied.

Another object of this invention is to provide an internal combustion engine construction in which vibration forces are minimized.

It is also an object of this invention to eliminate crankshaft stresses by minimizing the planes of force application.

A still further object of the invention is to simplify construction of internal combustion engines.

These and other objects of the invention which will become apparent from the following disclosure taken in conjunction with the claims are achieved by provision of a uni-cylindrical engine in which the cylinder comprises a hollow torus in which is a plurality of spaced pairs of power pistons and reaction pistons are provided. A linkage is provided between the pistons so as to vary the spacing therebetween and inlet and exhaust ports as well as ignition means are provided between the pistons so as to permit the desired thermodynamic cycle of operation within the cylinder between said pistons. Each of the power-pistons is coupled by a connecting rod to a single hub on the crankshaft to drive same by the'appli- Figure 1 is a schematic representation of the majorstructural components of the novel engine showing their interrelationship;

Figure 2 is a detailed sectional view of a portion of the engine shown in Fig. 1;

Figure 3 is a cross-sectional view through the. cylinder taken on line 33 of Figure 1, looking in the direction of the arrows and revealing the details of cylinder wall construction;

Figure 4 is a front elevational view of the main power. piston; n

Figure 5 is a cross-sectional view taken on line 5-5 through the piston linkage revealing the details of the cam surface and follower;

Figure 6 is a perspective view of a segment of the drive shaft revealing how the connecting rods of the power and reaction pistons are coupled thereto. I

It will be observed that the engine revealed in the drawings employs a single torus shaped cylinder which in operation may be positioned in either a horizontal or vertical plane.

Referring more particularly to the drawings where like numerals in the various figures are employed to designate like parts, in Figures 1 and 2 is seen the novel engine 10 comprising a torus shaped cylinder 11 within which are mounted pairs of pistons, each pair consisting of a main power piston 12 and an auxiliary reaction piston 13. Pistons 12 and 13 are supported on connecting rods 14 and 15, respectively, which are coupled at one end to drive shaft 16. Rod 14 is rigidly fastened to the shaft 16, and rod 15 is pivotally fastened thereto.

The cylinder 11 is provided with a slot 17 at the point of minimum diameter of the torus comprising said cylinder. As best seen in Figure 3, the inner cylinder wall at this point is provided with an annular recess 18. Exhaust ports 27 are provided at spaced points on the cylinder 11, as seen in Figure 1. a v

The main power piston 12 consists of two sections and is provided with a fuel inlet port 19 properly valved at 20, so as to insure admission of fuel through said port at times of minimum pressure behind said main cylinder. This valve 20 may suitably be of a spring pressed type in which the spring loading is such as to permit the valve to be opened only during this period of minimum pressure. A lip 21 is provided on the trailing edge of the piston and is adapted to slide in the groove 18. Extending through connecting rod 14 and piston 12 to port 19 from drive shaft 16 is a passageway 22 for the admission of the fuel-air mixture from the intake manifold. The air-fuel mixture is fed through bore 23 in the drive shaft leading to passageway 22. The connection between main power piston 12 and shaft 16 is a rigid coupling by means of connecting rod 14 which is seen to extend into a recess in the shaft 16 (see Figure 2). The piston 12 is further provided with a spark plug 24, of standard make and having contact points 25 and 26.

A ring 31 is supported by the frame of the engine concentrically to the cylinder 11. The ring 31 carries a live conductor exposed at a series of spaced contact points 32 which engage contacts 33 on the connecting rod 14 for energizing the spark plugs. Mounted on this annular ring 31 are a plurality of spaced cam stops 34, one for each reaction piston 13, which are adapted to engage stop pins 35 mounted on the connecting rods 15 of the reaction piston. The engagement between a stop 34 and a pin 35 is a resiliently yieldable one (not shown), so that the pin 35 can slide over the stop 34 in the direction of the arrow shown in Fig. l, but can not move'in' the opposite direction.

, The frameof the engine also carries a star-shaped cam 36 shown inFigur'l'. "This cam 36, as'best' seen. in Figure 5, comprises two spaced channel members 37 and 38' having" roller cam followers 39 and 40, respectively, engaging in" said channel's; Cross pin 41 is connected between said cam followers and serves to pivotally connect links 42 and 43, respectively, connected to the main connecti'ng rod 14 and reaction connecting rod 15.

On the leading edge of piston 13, as best seen in Figure l, is a lip" 44 engaging" with lip 21 of piston 12. The

piston 13 also consists of two parts and the shaft 15 connected to the piston 13", may have telescoping portions.

OPERATION I In operation the engine above disclosed may be positioned with itstorus shaped cylinder 11 supported in any desired plane depending on where it is desired to have the power output transmitted.

Shaft=16 is rotated, either manually or by any suitable starter motor to cause pistons 12 and 13 to be moved within cylinder 11. It will be observed that the distance between the pistons varies depending on the position of roller cam followers 39 and 40 in cam 36. When the roller camfollowers are in the valley of the star cam 36, as seen in the right hand pair of pistons of Figure 1, the distance between the pistons is minimal and the cylinder volume encompassed therebetween is correspondingly at a minimum. Conversely when the followers 39, 40 are at the peaks of the star, as seen at the top of Figure 1, links 42 and 43 are forced apart with the result that the cylinder volume between the pistons is maximal. It is thus seen that the volume requirements of the conventional four stroke Otto cycle are readily provided by the rotation of the shaft 16, namely, (1) a maximum intake volume, (2) a minimum compression volume, (3)

a maximum power stroke volume, and (4) a minimum exhaust volume.

, A fuel-air mixture is fed between the pistons 12 and 13 through port 19 past valve 20 when the volume between the pistons is maximum. This mixture is then compressed andspark plug 24 is energized through contacts 32 and 33 to ignite the mixture.

At this point of explosion valve 20is closed due to the pressure build-up and piston 13 is locked in position by engagement of cam stop 34 with pin 35. The resulting' expansion forces piston 12 forward in the direction of the arrow shown in Figure l and pulls the shaft 16 around with it to the final exhaust stroke position where the space between the pistons is opened to the atmos phere through exhaust ports 27.

Lips 21 and 44 which slide over one another in recess 18 serve to seal the cylinder between the pistons.

It is thus seen that an engine has been provided simple in construction and requiring minimal space in which a single torus shaped cylinder may accommodate a plurality of pairs of cylinders to provide multicylinder benefits and that crankshaft problems are eliminated due to the application of all driving connecting rods to the drive shaft about a substantially single point.

The above disclosure has been given by way of illustration and elucidation, and it is desired to protect all embodiments of the herein disclosed inventive concept within the scope of the appended claims.

What is claimed is;

1. An internal combustion engine comprising: a hollow torus shaped cylinder; a main power piston mounted to move within said cylinder; an auxiliary reaction piston mounted to move in said cylinder; connecting rods supporting said pistons; a link pivotally connected to each rod and to each other; a cam follower at the pivotal connection of said links; a drive shaft coupled to said main power piston to be moved thereby, a cam engaging said follower to vary the displacement between said pistons whereby the volume between said pistons in said cylinder is varied; and said cam being fixedly mounted with respect to the cylinder, the cam being of a symmetrical shape and positioned coaxial of the cylinder.

2. An internal combustion engine as set forth in claim- I, in which the cylinderhas a plurality of exhaust ports equally spaced thereabout. and the cam has a number of high points which is twice the number of exhaust ports.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Martin Mar. 30, 

